This April 22, 2014, photo shows an employment application form on a table during a job fair at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, N.Y. The Labor Department said Friday, May 2, 2014, that U.S. employers added a robust 288,000 jobs in April, the most in two years, the strongest evidence to date that the economy is picking up after a brutal winter slowed growth. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

The U.S. economy last month posted its biggest employment gain in more than two years with 288,000 new jobs. As a result, the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent.

April’s jobless rate was the lowest since September 2008. It landed well below the previous month’s reading of 6.7 percent and was significantly lower than the year-ago rate of 7.5 percent, the Labor Department reported.

Job gains for February and March were also revised upward. February’s initially reported gain of 197,000 jobs was bumped to 222,000, and March jumped from 192,000 to 203,000. With those revisions, employment gains for the two months were 36,000 higher than originally reported.

“This is a good set of numbers,” said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “It shows us that there has been continuing progress in the labor market. The drop in unemployment is due in part to a slight drop in the labor participation rate, but when you look at household and nonfarm job creation, it is very strong.”

The number of long-term unemployed Americans who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more also dropped by 287,000 in April to 3.5 million.

But they still accounted for 35.3 percent of the nation’s total unemployed. The U.S. labor force participation rate fell by 0.4 percent to 62.8 percent in April.

The Labor Department also noted an ominous undercurrent. The nation’s civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 in April following an increase of 503,000 in March.

Kleinhenz isn’t overly concerned about that.

“That number bounces around from month to month,” he said. “Even the seasonally adjusted numbers are difficult to gauge.”

Last month’s biggest employment boost came in professional and business services, which added 75,000 jobs. Employment in that sector has increased by an average of 55,000 jobs a month over the past year.

Additional job gains were seen last month in construction (32,000), health care (19,000) and manufacturing (12,000), among others.

The motion picture and sound recording industry posted a loss of 7,500 jobs in April. But Kleinhenz said that industry has seen consistent gains in Southern California.

He also noted that Los Angeles County’s employment sector has grown at a year-over-year rate of 2.1 percent while the nation’s annual growth clocked in at 1.7 percent.

“For the labor force to advance like that, even though a significant number people in the older boomer generation are leaving the labor force … that tells us that things are headed in the right direction,” he said.

Bob Bekian, who owns Loyal Studios in Burbank, said his operation has managed to survive by integrating state-of-the-art technology. The 4,000-square-foot facility includes a pre-lit studio, a producer’s room, an edit suite and a 50s-style kitchen and VIP dressing room.

“We do a lot TV interviews for broadcast that are used on shows like ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ and ‘Storage Wars,’” he said.

Bekian said many TV and film productions have left Southern California to places where costs are lower and incentives higher.

“We’ve seen a lot of defection,” he said. “If you talk to directors, this place is not as film friendly as it should be. There are lots of restrictions to using locations in the city.”

Los Angeles County experienced healthy employment growth in March — the most recent period for which figures are available — with 18,900 jobs added and a year-over-year gain of 87,500 jobs.

The Inland Empire saw a similar trend, with 3,000 jobs added in March and 32,400 added over the year.

Southern California was dealt a severe blow last month when Toyota announced that it will be moving its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters from Torrance to Plano, Texas.

That will involve the relocation of about 3,000 jobs.

“This will affect certain restaurants and bars in the area,” said Matt Jacques, who works as a bartender at the Industry Sports Bar & Grill in Torrance. “We get a handful of the Toyota people in here, but it’s not a very large group.”

Jacques said the headline numbers aren’t always what they might seem.

“I’ve seen a lot of big companies move out of Torrance,” he said “A lot of them offer to relocate their employees, but what I’ve noticed is that a lot of those people don’t relocate — they find other jobs here and we still see them around.”

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.